


What If I Loved All Those Nightmares Away?

by SerStolas



Series: Post Rogue One Stories [2]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Fluff and Angst, I'm an angsty little shit, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2018-10-19 06:04:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 17,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10633791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerStolas/pseuds/SerStolas
Summary: Bodhi Rook: Imperial Defector, The Pilot of Rogue One, X-Wing Pilot, and now freighter pilot.  He's building his life after the Galatic Civil War.  During that time he finds friendship, good times with old friends, and maybe someone who can finally soothe his nightmares of Scariff Away.Vexei Ly: born and raised Mandalorian, former bounty hunter, former Rebellion ground troop and Imperial POW.  After the war, she was left at loose ends, until Bodhi Rook offered her a job, and the former crew of Rogue One offered her a family.  She's found a new home and a new purpose.  Can she find it in it to forgive herself and move on from the past?This is a companion piece to As It Breaks, following the adventures of one Bodhi Rook and his business partner, Vexei Ly.  COMPLETE





	1. First Meetings

**Author's Note:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/Lucas Arts

The first time the Pilot met the ex-bounty hunter was in a conference room on Cloud City. He'd been called there by an old friend to help another friend.

Bodhi Rook had never been so glad to see Jyn Erso-Andor alive when she stepped through the door, followed by a Zabrak woman. The Zabrak's voice sounded a little rough, like she'd spent years yelling on the battle field, when she spoke.

“So Finder, this is the Pilot, eh?”

And that was how he met Vexei Ly. Little did he know at the time the tempest he'd let into his life.

He managed to pick up on Vexei and Jyn's story on the trip to Yavin 4. Vexei had been captured on Jakku, around the same time Jyn had been captured, and the two women met in Imperial prison. It was evident an odd friendship had grown between the two women during those months under Imperial eyes. He noticed that Jyn made an effort to use her own name, and Vexei's real name, whereas the Zabrak often still referred to Jyn as Finder, or herself as Scorch.

While both women were of similar height, where Jyn was whipcord lean, pale skin, green eyes and dark hair, Vexei was solid and stocky. The Zabrak's tanned face spoke of years spent under the sun, with a dark brown linear pattern, typical of Zabrak tattoos, lining her face. Jyn told him once sparring against Vexei was like hitting a durasteel wall sometimes.

When they hit Yavin 4, Bodhi told Jyn to go on ahead. For the moment, he trusted Vexei enough for her to help him set the _Oblivion_ to rights. Vexei was former a former Rebellion ground troop, and Jyn vouched for her from their time as POW.

It also helped that Solo had passed him a copy of Vexei's records from her time with the Rebellion as a background check.

Vexei worked steadily along beside him unloading cargo and making minor repairs. She was in total agreement with him when he suggested they stay at the ship that night since Cassian and Jyn were no doubt in the middle of a reunion.

“Bout time too. She loves him something fierce,” Vexei said as she and Bodhi sat outside living quarters on the _Oblivion_ , drinking from a bottle of bad whiskey. When Bodhi remarked on its quality, she just laughed, telling him that after months as an Imperial POW, even shit whiskey tasted good.

“Yeah,” Bodhi agreed. He smiled. “There was something there from the beginning, I think, back before we were even Rogue one. And after, well, you could see it like an invisible tether between them. None of us were surprised when they got married after Endor.”

“I'd imagine not,” Vexei nodded. “I've heard stories about Rogue one. I would say most are probably true.” She grinned. “Honor to be in such illustrious company.” She raised her tumbler to him.

Bodhi felt a flush spread up his face. “Not really that illustrious. I was an Imperial defector at one point.”

Vexei gave him a thoughtful glance and shrugged. “Technically, Bodhi Rook, so was I.” She paused and looked down into her tumbler of whiskey. “Well, I wasn't technically Imperial, but I worked for them at one point. I was a bounty hunter, and I did take a couple jobs from them.”

“What happened?” he found himself asking. “You mentioned a friend, that it drove you to the Resistance.”

She continued to stare into the tumbler as she spoke, her voice taking on a far away quality. “I hadn't done an Imperial job in awhile, had been taking jobs from Hutts instead. Found out the hard way that my _Riduur_ evidently had helped the Resistance out a few times. They tracked him home. He fought well, died in battle, but it wasn't enough.”

Bodhi wasn't sure what the word _Riduur_ meant, but he could tell it had been someone very close to her. “Was it a friend who drank too much, or you?” he asked in a moment of absolute insight.

She raised a pair of haunted hazel eyes to him, wondering why she was telling someone she'd only met a few days ago all this. But she'd held it in for so damned long..

“It was me,” she replied, carefully setting the still half full tumbler of whiskey on the table. “They killed my _Riduur_ and my _ad_ , and I burned for nothing more than revenge.”

“What changed?” Bodhi asked, his voice quiet as he met those hazel eyes, something in them turning his heart over.

“The Rebellion,” she replied in a steady tone. “When I saw how many others had lost everything to the Empire, and how many others still fought because of hope? I figured we all might be broken, but at least we weren't alone in it.”

Bodhi remembered the pain of losing Galen Erso, one of the first friends who really believed in him, and then the nightmares he still had of Scarif. The Rebellion had changed them all, he thought.

“What do you plan to do now, that you're free?” he asked after the silence had stretched out into several minutes.

“Don't know,” Vexei replied. “I suppose I could join the New Republic's military, or pick up some of my old contacts from before I joined the Rebellion.” She shrugged. “Where I come from, children are taught to fight from a very young age. My _ad_ was already just starting to learn. I've been fighting all my life.”

“You could go back to bounty hunting,” Bodhi hedged. For some reason he found he sort of liked this woman, as a potential friend. She didn't care that he'd been an Imperial defector, and Jyn trusted her. Those were two good points in her favor. “Though I could use some help in hauling freight, at least for awhile.” His expression turned a bit sheepish. “I'm more diplomatic than some situations require.”

She arched her brows at him. “My people skills aren't the best, Flyboy.”

That was the first time she ever used that nickname for him.

“Yeah, well that's my job,” Bodhi replied, finding a grin tugging his lips. “You just stand there and look menacing.”  
She laughed. “That I can do.”

So he took on a partner for the first time since the war ended. She was a little broken, he was a little broken, but they worked well together.

At four months into their partnership, he noticed her tendency to take charge when negotiations started getting out of hand and threats started to fly. 

The first time they'd been negotiating a shipment of blasters to Tatooine, with payment upon arrival. When their supplier's contact arrived to collect and pay, they'd tried to lower the agreed upon amount. Bodhi had argued they'd done the job and delivered everything as promised, in fact a day earlier than the original drop date. The pickup evidently felt since they had Bodhi and Vexei outnumbered, they could threaten them to either take it or leave it.

Bodhi discovered that Vexei was downright scary when she was pissed.

The negotiations had ended with two unconscious bodyguards and their human contact pissing himself when Vexei shoved a blaster pistol to his forehead. They left with their full payment and then some. 

As the months wore on, they fell more and more easily into place beside each other, in negotiations and battle. He was a better pilot than the Imperials had given him credit for, and she was a skilled ground troop. Most negotiations he managed, and she provided firepower when needed.

He also learned on one run that she'd earned the nickname “Scorch” in the Rebellion, and why, when they left a warehouse in smoking ruins after a supplier double crossed them and a Hutt's forces tried to attack. 

Mental note, he thought, never, ever, get on Vexei's bad side.

He slowly opened up to her, telling her about his family, his mother and father, his sister, before he'd gone to the Imperial Academy. He told her about his defection, his first few rough months with the Rebellion before the X-Wing pilots had taken him under their wings, and he'd ended up joining a squadron.

She told him about her time with the Rebellion and the different ops she'd been on, but he noticed that, except when she'd had a little alcohol, she never spoke much of her time before the Rebellion, beyond what she'd told him that first time.  
Someday, he hoped she'd open up to him a bit more.


	2. Not so Secrets Revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bodhi and Vexei offer each other silent comfort from nightmares, and Bodhi finally figures out the memories that Vexei's been carrying.
> 
> See notes at the end of the chapter regarding Vexei's age and the time line. Current year is 7 ABY.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/ LucasArts

They'd know each other for seven months the first time she found him in the galley after a particularly bad nightmare, cradling a cup of caf between his hands and staring into space.

She'd slipped quietly into the room and poured herself a cup of caf, and they stood there, leaning back against the counter beside each other for several minutes before she spoke.

“Nightmares again?” she asked in a soft tone, something rather at odds with the tone he usually heard from her.

Bodhi nodded wearily, raising his brown eyes to meet her hazel. “I get them, now and then. Its usually worse on tropical planets, with beaches.”

“Doesn't surprise me,” she said and took a long sip of caf. “I don't like mountains myself. Brings back coming home to a collapsed building, still smoldering.”

“When they killed your-” Bodhi paused, still not sure what the words she'd spoke on that first night meant. “Your family?” he said at last.

“Yeah.” She shifted, next to him, until her hip and thigh were pressed against his own and she was standing right beside him. He felt a warmth spread through him, but he hid it behind the cup of caf. 

“The Imperials were always pretty...thorough,” he said softly. “Jyn told me, once, about when her mother was killed and they took Galen away.” 

A soft shutter ran through him at the memory of Galen's death, and he felt her press her arm against his, offering a silent comfort. They stood there, arm to arm, hip to hip, and he soaked in the comfort of her presence.

They both finished their caf in silence, and she took the empty mug from him and washed both before stowing them. Finally, she put her hand on his forearm. “Come on, Bodhi, why don't you get back to bed.”

“After Caf?” he asked.

She shrugged. “You've been running on fumes for days, Flyboy, you'll fall asleep again, trust me.”

He let her lead him back to his room. She touched his shoulder lightly and then left him to head back to bed herself. He found himself falling into bed, falling asleep quickly at the memory of her touch on his arm.

From that night on, every time she heard him moving around the crew quarters after a nightmare, she'd slide out of her bunk and join him in the galley or crew quarters. Sometimes she'd wake up first from a nightmare, and he'd join her. They'd sit or stand beside each other for minutes, sometimes hours, hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder, the soothing presence of the other chasing the vestiges of nightmare away.

They were definitely friends. Their friendship had formed in those first few days, and only solidified over the months they worked together.

Occasionally he heard her curse under her breath, or mutter in some language he couldn't understand, a rhythmic tongue that seemed to come more easily to her than basic. Between that, her armor, and what little she mentioned of her life before the Rebellion, he began forming some suspicions. He ended up contacting Cassian one night when she was out with a contact to get his hands on what he needed to confirm those suspicions. 

Learning a new language was never easy, easy, but he struggled through the unfamiliar words on the his datapad, using the information Cassian had sent him.

The big breakthrough, the one that tore most at his heart, came two nights after they had taken Biva and Jaq to Cassian and Jyn. He was sitting on the couch in Cassian and Jyn's living room, datapad in hand while Cassian held a fussing Biva. He and Vexei had offered to stay a few days to help Cassian and Jyn get the kids settled in. They all knew the children would have issues, given the situation Vexei had pulled them from.

His eyes scanned over the Mandalorian nouns on his data pad, reading them slowly under his breath.

He froze mid-word as he muttered over the word _ad_.

“Oh Kriff,” Bodhi murmured, feeling the floor drop from beneath him.

No wonder Vexei had been so good with the kids on the trip from Coruscant to Yavin 4.

“What's wrong Bodhi?” Cassian was standing a few inches from the couch, a now sleeping Biva resting her head on his shoulder.

Bodhi sighed and ran a finger through his thick, dark hair as he raised his eyes to meet Cassian's. “You know Vexei's Mandalorian, or she was?” 

Cassian nodded. “I suspected; you suspected. She uses Mando'a more than she realizes.”

“Do you know what the words _ad_ and _riduur_ mean?” Body asked quietly.

Cassian's expression didn't change, but he nodded.

“Before the Rebellion, she said the Imperials killed hers.” Bodhi rubbed a hand on his rough jumpsuit, processing what it all meant. “She joined the Rebellion just a year or two before Jyn and I did. When she lost her husband...her kid.”

Cassian's brown eyes were sad. “That's an all too familiar story in the Rebellion, Bodhi. A lot of us joined the Rebellion because we had nothing else to lose.”

Bodhi nodded slowly, remembering that haunted look in Vexei's eyes from that first night. No wonder she had nightmares. “No one deserves to lose that.”

“No one does, but a lot of people did,” Cassian replied. “That's why we fought against the Empire. That's why she fought, no doubt.” Cassian gave him a faint frown. “You love her, don't you?”

Bodhi froze at those words, his eyes widening at the thought. “I-er-we're friends, we..”  
His words trailed off. He remembered the comfort he felt when she stood beside him in the galley after nightmares of Scarif or his time in the Empire woke him up yet again. She remembered her quiet touch when she put a hand on his arm, and the warm look in those hazel eyes when she handed him a cup of caf every morning.

“Maybe,” Bodhi admitted at last. 

“You going to tell her?” Cassian asked, arching a brow at him.

“I don't know.” Could he tell her? How would she react, given her past?

Cassian gave him a pointed look, and Bodhi snorted. “How long did it take you and Jyn, to finally admit it?”

Cassian looked sheepish, if only for a moment. “Well, think about it, Bodhi. You two have been working together for a year, and she doesn't look like she's going to leave any time soon.”

The new father left it at that, carrying his daughter back into her room to put her to bed.

Once they were back on the _Oblivion_ a week later, alone, Bodhi debated if he should bring up the topic of her past, or his emotions. But then they fell so easily into their usual banter, and he couldn't find the words.

I'll tell her someday, he promised himself. For now, he was just glad to have her here with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Current year in the story is 7 ABY. Vexei joined the Rebellion in 2 BBY. Vexei was born in 24 BBY, a year after Boodhi Rook, and married young in 5 BBY at the age of 19. Her ad was a year old in 2 BBY when Vexei's family was killed.


	3. My Heart Is Heavy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vexei struggles with her memories and Bodhi is there to comfort her, then she returns the favor. And finally, they both voice the feelings they've been fighting for months.
> 
> Mando'a taken from http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mando%27a/Legends
> 
> Author's Note: Warning of description of death and loss of a child.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/LucasArts

Vexei felt her hands shaking as she stood in the galley of the kitchen, gripping the counter so hard her knuckles had gone white. She hadn't cried out in her sleep this time, thankfully, and evidently Bodhi hadn't heard her moving around the ship yet. 

They'd just left Yavin 4 two days before, after a short visit with Jyn, Cassian, and the children, checking to see how the family was doing after their first four months as a family. The night before they'd left, Biva had woken up screaming loud enough to wake the entire house, and Vexei had been having nightmares since.

She could still remember the screams over the holo, mingled with the sound of blaster fire as Audo had fought off the forced that had broken into their home that night. She could hear Subosa's cries in the background as the Imperial troops broke in and eventually pressed in such force against Audo they'd overwhelmed him.

Vex could still hear the mocking voice of the Imperial officer over the holo, telling her that her family was dead, then the sickening sound of blaster fire, and Subosa's wail cut off suddenly and dreadfully.

Vexei shoved her fist against her mouth as she tried to hold back a sob. 

Audo's death she'd mourned as a warrior, knowing he'd died fighting. She'd said the Mando'a daily remembrance for him for every day for the first few years she'd been in the Rebellion. Sometime before she'd been captured on Jakku had she finally allowed herself to stop. She would always remember Audo, but he was dead, and she wasn't.

But Subosa? The death of her _ad_ had left a hollow place in her heart she felt would never close. Subosa would have been ten this year, and should have been well on her way to learning the ways of their people, their language.

Instead her life had been cut short by an Imperial blaster, and by the time Vexei had managed to get home, only ashes remained.

She felt herself shaking and knew she should probably return to her room, sobs muffled only by her fist against her mouth.

Then she felt a sold wall of heat behind her, and a pair of warm arms wrapping around her waist. She felt Bodhi turn her in his arms, her face pressed against the soft material of his night shirt. Her fist dropped from her mouth and she sobbed into his chest.

They stood like that for several minutes, and he let her sob into him, her tears soaking his shirt, until her cries finally dying down. She sighed, turning her cheek to his chest and listened to the sound of his beating heart.

“Who do you cry for?” she heard Bodhi's voice deep in his chest as he continued rubbing her back with one hand, the other arm wrapped around her waist.

“My _ad_ ,” she admitted, too tired to care. “Biva's cries...they reminded me of that night. It's been almost a decade, and I can't forget those cries.”

“How old was she?” Bodhi asked, his brown eyes staring down at the top of her head, her horns, and the black plaited braid that hung down her back.

“One,” Vexei replied. “She didn't deserve it, neither of them did. But while I can let Audo rest in the void, I cannot forget Subosa's cries.”

It was the first time she'd told Bodhi the names of her family, one of the first times since the first night they'd really talked that she mentioned them.

Bodhi didn't offer her any empty words about wishing he could bring her daughter back, and for that she was grateful. The pilot seemed to sense exactly what she needed as he lead her back into the galley and poured caf for both of them. She accepted the cup, her hands no longer shaking, and met his brown gaze over the grim of her mug.

“Thank you, Bodhi,” she said after several moments of silence.

“Whatever you need, Vex,” he promised.

Bodhi still hadn't told her he was in love with her, and while he wanted to something desperate right now, he didn't think the timing would be right, not when she had just been weeping over memories of her dead daughter.

She gave him a watery smile. “I really don't deserve a friend like you,” she said.

“Yeah, well I probably don't deserve you either,” Bodhi replied. They were definitely friends, and he sensed that would be there no matter what. Occasionally though, he wondered at her emotions. Her gaze seemed to linger on him at times, and there was a certain affection in her eyes when they exchanged a glance.

No, better to stay quiet right now.

He continued to keep those thoughts to himself, until three months later, when they were on their way to Belladoon because Vexei insisted she'd secured a cargo they needed to pick up. Vexei arrange for their shipments as often as he did, and she'd never steered him wrong, but Bodhi wasn't too thrilled about going to a planet that had still been an Imperial stronghold up until the end of the war.

It had given him nightmares about Scarif again, dreams that had him screaming loud enough that Vexei actually came pounding into his room from her bunk, shaking him awake.

Her presence there, her arm around his shoulders as she sat shoulder to hip with him on the edge of the bed, chased the vestiges of the nightmares away. And there, in the quiet dark of hyperspace and his quarters, he'd finally told her that it was her presence that comforted him.

When he'd asked her to stay, she had, quietly lying on the bed beside him, not really touching, but there.

After they'd picked up their cargo on Belladoon, they'd headed to Yavin 4. That night, when they went to turn in for the night, he'd stopped and asked her if she would sleep in his room that night. 

A slow, almost shy smile, so odd for a woman usually so self possessed, spread over her lips, and she'd followed him into his room. They hadn't really done much but lay down together, but he'd fallen asleep with the warmth of her body pressed against his, with his arm wrapped firmly around her waist.

That night, neither of them had nightmares.

The following morning, he'd woken slowly to the pleasant sensation of her curled against him, though his arm was asleep from her using it as a pillow. Hesitantly, he'd leaned over, and brushed his lips against her cheek.

She'd come awake at that, her eyes fluttering open, hazel eyes taking in the location, then she'd smiled at him, this time more confident than her smile from the night before, and she'd pulled him closer, brushing her lips against his own.

“I can't promise how well this will work, _cyar'ika_ ,” she said, “But I'm willing to try, if you are.”

 _Cyar'ika_. He felt his heart soar at those words as he touched the tip of his nose to hers. “Both of us have our baggage, Vexei, but I want to try...it's better to try than to never know, I think.” He took a deep breath, then said the words he'd wanted to say for seven long months. “I love you.”

Her smile had been blinding. “ _Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum,_ Bodhi.”

He recited the words back to her slowly, the language still strange on his tongue. “ _Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum_ , Vexei.”


	4. Set Backs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bodhi and Vexei find there are still some former Imperials who have it out for them.
> 
> Angst, and because it wouldn't be Star Wars unless someone lost an arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/LucasArts

Most of their deliveries were mundane and boring.

Vexei once told him the boring jobs were the best. If things got exciting, that meant something had probably gone wrong. Bodhi was inclined to agree, since the more 'exciting' jobs had a tendency to end with Vexei shooting someone because they'd pissed her off.

His darling certainly had a temper on her.

The first time she'd really yelled at him came after what should have been a boring job, but then some ex-Imperial with a vibroknife to grind evidently got word of their arrival on planet, how Bodhi still wasn't sure, and had caused all sorts of trouble.

She yelled at him as she applied bacta patches to the long cut across Bodhi's left shoulder, muttering under her breath often in Mando'a as she did.

“What were you thinking, Bodhi?” she demanded as she dressed the wound. It wasn't as deep as it could have been, but it was enough to rile her.

“Excuse me for trying to get you out of the line of fire,” Bodhi glared at her.

“I wear beskar, you kriffing _sheb_ ,” she swore at him. “I would have been fine. You on the other hand, took a vibroknife to the shoulder. I hope I can repair that flightsuit but I'm not sure.”

Their eyes met, hazel and brown eyes glaring at each other for a long moment.

“Doesn't meant I want to see you get hurt if you don't have to,” Bodhi muttered.

Vexei sighed and dropped onto the bench beside him. He was still in his gray flightsuit, unbuttoned to the waist, and she'd pulled his tank top off to dress the wound. She was dressed similarly in an olive jumpsuit, though she wore a t-shirt. Her armor was carefully stowed in the cabinet she'd long since claimed for it.

“Bodhi, I do not like seeing you hurt anymore than you like seeing me hurt,” she told him, turning to him and tracing her fingers along his jawline. “You're a deadly shot with your blaster, but if either of us is going to engage in hand to hand combat, I think I'm a bit better equipped for it between my armor and my armory. Please be more careful next time.”

His gaze softened and the anger drained out of both of them as he caught her hand in his and gently kissed her fingertips. “I'll be more careful next time, Vex,” he promised. 

She gave him a lopsided smile and leaned against his right shoulder, letting him wrap his good arm around her waist. “At least we made it out with the cargo. Idiot Imperial. Most former Imps aren't quite so brazen.”

Bodhi nodded, his brow creasing for a moment. “There's probably always going to be those who weren't happy with the end of the Empire's reign.” He shook his head. “Thankfully they seem few and far between at most stops we make.”

Vexei hmmed in agreement, leaning into his side as she relaxed against him. Eventually one of them would have to go to the galley to get dinner, unless they wanted ration bars away, but Bodhi was more than willing to saver this quiet few minutes with his partner.

They'd been business partners for two years and a half years, and together for the past eleven months. Most runs, Bodhi didn't make mistakes as he did today, knowing that Vexei could take care of herself, but the attacker had come up from behind her, and she wouldn't have been able to see them before they'd struck.

Next time he might put more faith in Vex's armor, he thought with a wince as he shifted his shoulder.

“May want to take a few days after this delivery,” Vexei suggested, catching the tail end of his wince. “Rest up. Maybe go visit your former crew again. Chirrut and Baze are supposed to arrive on Yavin soon, aren't they?” She knew how fond he was of the old Rogue One crew, and she got as much pleasure from visiting as he did, even if she didn't have the same history with them as he did.

After the Galactic Civil War, Bodhi had briefly thought about trying to get in touch with his family. They hadn't spoke to him since he'd gone to the Imperial Academy, and he had no idea what they thought of him joining the Rebellion. All he knew now was that they were alive.

Rogue One felt more like family now though, and Bodhi wasn't anxious to go chasing the ghosts of his past. Vexei certainly wasn't going to encourage him to do something he really didn't want to. She had her own ghosts she had no desire to stir up.

Bodhi nodded his agreement, allowing himself the luxury of nuzzling the back of her head and her hair was she leaned against him, being careful of the horns. They'd discovered the hard way that it was not comfortable when you ran into your lover's horns by mistake.

“Get this latest shipment of seeds to Dantooine, and then contact Cassian and Jyn to see if they'd mind the company,” he agreed. He sighed. “Eventually one of us is going to have to get up and go make dinner.”

“Eventually,” she agreed, pressing a bit closer to him.

He gave up for the moment, and laughed before he kissed her as she turned her face up to his.

~~

They landed on one of the smaller ports on Dantooine. Everything about this drop of should be normal. Dantooine had once been home to a Rebellion base, and there weren't many known Imperial sympathizers on the planet. 

Vexei was still cautious as they suited up for the drop. Bodhi helped her check the seals on the back of her armor, and she insisted he take an extra blaster.

It made Bodhi a bit jittery. When Vexei had a bad feeling about something, it was usually right. 

She'd gone so far as to secure a vibrosword across her back, something he'd only seen her wear once or twice in two and a half years. 

They hit the drop point without any issues and started unloading the cartons of seeds. Vexei oversaw the unloading as Bodhi worked with their buyers to exchange credits. Everything seemed to be going well. They didn't have any trouble with the exchange or receiving the agreed upon payment. 

He was shaking hands with one of the farmers as they finished the deal, thinking perhaps, for once, Vexei's bad feeling had been wrong.

The first sign that something was wrong was the ground shuttering beneath them. He saw panic in the eyes of the farmers as the explosion ripped through the hanger.

Bodhi threw himself over one of the farmers, ever the hero these days, as plastcrete and durasteel went flying around them. When he saw a group of strangers in black storming into the hanger, trying to use the explosion as their cover, he dragged the farmer behind one of the stacks of seed crates, unhooking the blaster from his belt.

“Can you shoot?” he demanded of the shaken farmer beside him. The man blinked several times then nodded, and Bodhi handed him the second blaster.

They ducked from behind the crates and he could see Vexei physically throwing herself at two of their assailants, vibrosword in hand, wielding the weapon with deadly accuracy as a shot missed and she sliced one of the two from shoulder to hip. 

Vexei could still hear the explosion ringing in her ears, even with her helmet on, as she threw herself into battle. Hot blood splashed on her armor as she sank the vibrosword into flesh, feeling the familiar, comfortable weight of the weapon in her hands. 

Blaster fire erupted around them as Bodhi and some of the farmers ducked from behind crates, firing at the attackers as she engaged the second she'd attacked. She heard the clack of blade on blade as they met her vibroblade with one of their own.

The chaos of the battle seemed to stretch out over hours, though the reality took only a few minutes. More than a few of the farmers were former soldiers, and while there were casualties on both sides, there were more on the side of the attackers. 

She heard the movement behind her before she saw it, someone tossing a grenade as it rolled under her boots. 

She dove left, just a moment before the grenade went off, ringing in her ears.

Her attacker regained their footing first. She blocked one attack with her blade, and another, trying to get her wits about her again.

White hot pain cut through her senses as their blade met the unprotected flesh just below her left elbow and just above her gauntlets. Beskar was usually used more against blasters than blades. She bit her lit so hard it bled as she felt a loss of sensation on the left side. Somewhat clumsily, her blade was meant to be used two-handed, she thrust it forward.

At least the idiot wasn't wearing any real armor. It hit, skewering the attacker. 

Vexei dragged her helmet off with her right hand. She was vaguely aware she was bleeding badly from the stump of her left arm. She heard Bodhi shouting as he ran across the plastcrete towards her.

“Shoulda worn arm guards...today,” she murmured as she pitched forward, letting unconsciousness take her.


	5. Hearts a Flutter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vexei wakes up, she and Bodhi have a talk.
> 
> Fluff instead of Angst this chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/LucasArts

The smell of antiseptic and bacta surrounded them in the medical ward. Bodhi sighed and slumped in the padded chair one of the nurses had finally brought him as he watched the steady beep and lines play across the monitors they'd hooked Vexei up to.

She would live, they'd assured him. The biggest struggle had been getting the bleeding to stop. Once that was done, and the necessary transfusion complete, it was just waiting for her to wake up. 

Bodhi didn't ever think he'd get the sickening smell of burning flesh as a farmer used a blow torch to cauterize the wound on sight while they waited for medical response. Her lower left arm was a loss, not something they'd be able to reattach. 

Now that he knew she would live and he was just waiting for her to wake up, he reflected that she'd be pissed at the new necessity of having to find a cybernetic replacement for the limb. At least it was an option, though.

He'd been waiting for two days for her to wake up, catching bad sleep in a hospital chair and eating whatever one of the farmers who'd survived the attack forced on him. 

The planetary authorities were baffled by the attack. As near as anyone could tell, it had been carried out by former Imperials sympathizers, in an effort to disrupt trade on Dantooine. Bodhi and Vexei had evidently been caught at the wrong place and wrong time.

Bodhi had his own theories, though ones he wouldn't share aloud with anyone until they hit the safety of Yavin 4. He'd called Cassian and Jyn yesterday to let them know about the attack, and asked if they could come and visit once Vexei was awake and able to be moved. 

He wanted her to heal up some place where he knew they had allies.

He sighed and reached out placed his hand over her right hand. “Come on love, wake up, please. I want to see those beautiful eyes again.”

He eventually dozed off again, catching a few more hours of uneasy sleep in the hospital chair. 

Vexei slowly came back to consciousness surrounded by a blinding light, the steady beep of monitors, and the smell of bacta. She groaned softly, blinking against the hospital lights, and stared around the room quietly for several minutes. 

She felt the steady pressure of Bodhi's hand curled around hers and turned her head slightly. He looked scruffy, beard untrimmed, dark circles under his eyes, and exhausted, but definitely alive. She sighed in relief, not entirely sure what all had happened after she'd passed out.

Her next realization came when she tried to lift her left arm, and found tubes running into the upper part of her arm, and a carefully bandaged stump below her elbow, where the rest of her arm had once been.

Kriff. This was a liability, one she and Bodhi really didn't have time to deal with. Now what was she going to do?

“Vex? Vexei?” Bodhi's soft voice drew her attention away from the stump, and her hazel eyes met his tired brown ones. The relief she saw there shot through her, and she squeezed his hand with her right one.

“I'm here Bodhi,” she answered in a gravely voice. He squeezed her hand before grabbing a glass of water and helped her drink.

When her throat was no longer parched, she spoke again, entwining her fingers with his. “We safe? You okay?” she asked.

Bodhi laughed softly, on the edge of hysteria as he stared at her. “Of course that would be your first worry.” He leaned over their hands, tears leaking from his eyes. “We're safe, Vexei. They're investigating the attack.” He shuttered and lifted wet brow eyes to meet her gaze. “Kriff, Vex, don't ever do that to me again. I was so worried...If I'd lost you, I don't know what I would have done.”

“Hey, I'm not going anywhere, Bodhi Rook,” she told him firmly. “I'm alive...mostly whole, and alive.”

“I think the only reason they let me in was because you listed me as next of kin, even though we're not technically kin,” he said. 

He'd toyed with the idea of asking her to marry him more than once over the past six months, but never had. He didn't know how she'd feel about it, since she'd already lost one family.

“Guess we should fix that eventually,” she said as she lay back on the pillow. She stared up at the ceiling for a moment. “How long did they say I'd be in.”

“Let me go get a doctor and we'll find out,” he replied, squeezing her hand again before he got up out of the chair.

After the medical staff had checked her over and given her a prognosis and they were alone again, he sat back down beside her, refusing to let go of her hand.

“After they release you in another day or two, we're going to Yavin,” Bodhi told her firmly. “Give us a chance to regroup, maybe talk to our friends about what happened.”

And see if they could dig anything up, went the unspoken words.

“Friendly faces would be nice,” she said. She looked at him critically. “You should get some rest, Bodhi, and use the fresher. I'm betting you haven't gotten a good night sleep since we landed on Dantooine.”

“I haven't,” he admitted. He paused as he traced patterns on her hand with his fingers. “You mentioned getting the next of kin thing taken care of eventually?” he said with a cautious hope.

Vexei shrugged. “Well, I'm not going anywhere, and you aren't going anywhere. Stuff like this might be a bit easier of we were married.”

He chuckled softly, bringing her hand up to kiss it. “Only you would propose to me, missing an arm, bandaged, and in a hospital bed.”  
“True,” she replied, flashing him a familiar grin. “So, what do you say? Maybe once we hit Yavin 4?”

Bodhi's heart turned over at her smile, and he nodded. “I'd be honored. I've wanted to ask you for six months.”

“Then you should have,” she replied in a light tone as he leaned over to kiss her.


	6. Vows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If there's anything Bodhi's learned in his time with Vexei, it's that nothing ever goes quite according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to LucasArts/Disney

They’d originally planned on going to Yavin 4 first. Somehow, though, three days after Vexei had been released from the hospital, they found themselves in Cloud City, closeted away with former Generals Han Solo and Lando Clarissian.

Bodhi had intended to contact Jyn and Cassian as soon as Vexei was out of the hospital, but Han had gotten a hold of him first, somehow hearing through the grapevine about the attack on Dantooine. Now Bodhi sat across the table from Han, recounting the attack from the former Imperial sympathizers.

“Dantooine will investigate, but if they take anything to the Senate, they’ll probably be ignored if it’s anything big,” Han growled after Bodhi finished his description. “Leia is doing what she can, but the Republic is more interested with the idea of everyone appearing to play nice than actually dealing with any issues.”

Bodhi frowned. “The Battle of Jakku was only a few years ago. Are they that quick to forget things?”

Han gave Bodhi a pointed look. “Remember, Rook, I lead an unauthorized force of private civilians to pull Erso-Andor and Ly here out of a former Imperial Prison, an Imperial Prison, I will add, that the Republic still denies the existence of.” He glanced towards Vexei then. “All the authorities will do is write off this attack as a couple of Ex-Imperials turned terrorists, an isolated incident, despite that it isn’t the only one I’ve heard of on former Rebellion military.” Solo shook his head. “No, Rook, we’re on our own.”

“Sounds about right,” Vexei snorted. “The Republic would have left us to rot in that prison if we hadn’t staged the takeover.”

Bodhi reached over and took her right hand in his as he heard the bitterness in her voice. There were days his lover didn’t trust the Republic any more than she’d trusted the Imperials; but the Rebellion and their old friends from the Rebellion.

Well, at least there were a few people she trusted.

“All we can do right now is keep our eyes and ears open and pool information,” Calrissian mused.

“And resources,” Vexei added.

Lando smiled at the Zabrak. “I think for this group that goes without saying.” He sighed. “We learned some uncomfortable lessons during the war. Lessons I do not wish to repeat.”

Vexei’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully and she pointed the stump of her left arm at him. “I’m going to hold you to that, Calrissian.”

Both Han and Lando’s expressions darkened, though she knew it wasn’t at her, as they regarded the stump of her arm.

She felt Bodhi squeeze her hand again and felt the ring she wore around her neck shift on its chain. She glanced at Bodhi and made a rapid fire decision.

“Jyn’s going to kill us, but Calrissian, you’re Baron here, will you officiate for Bodhi and I?”

Bodhi’s eyes widened a fraction then narrowed as he regarded his fiancé. “Is a few more days going to make that big a difference?”

“I could have died on Dantooine, Bodhi,” Vexei replied firmly. “If anything else happens, I want you in the books as my legal next of kin, not just the person I listed. You heard them, this is not an isolated incident, no matter how much the Republic will pretend it is.”

“Jyn really is going to kill us,” Bodhi warned.

“We can throw a party when we get to Yavin 4. I want you here, and I want you now,” Vexei shot back.

Solo and Calrissian were whistling softly under their breath as Vexei stared Bodhi down. Bodhi knew he was a goner the second she gave him that look though, it was impossible for him to tell Vexei know.

“Alright love,” he replied at last, kissing her right knuckles. “I know you aren’t big on fancy ceremonies to begin with.”

Lando Calrissian looked from one to the other then laughed. “Well, I guess better here than anywhere else. Let’s get this done.”

Han muttered about shotgun weddings as Bodhi and Vexei stood side by side in front of the Cloud City Baron, but he stood too, crossing his arms as he watched.

“Since we aren’t going for formality,” Lando began, “We’re gathered here to bond Bodhi Rook and Vexei Ly. I’ll let you two come up with your own blasted vows. Vexei Ly, do you take Bodhi Rook to be your spouse?”

Vexei smiled, squeezing Bodhi’s left hand with her right and began reciting in Mando’a. That caused Han and Lando to both lift their brows. “ _Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde_. You may not technically be Mandalorian, but you are my _Riduur_ , now and for the rest of my life. What came before was a youth’s love. But this, us? This is forever.”

“Interesting vows, Vexei,” Lando remarked. “But the rest was in Basic, so I think it’ll count for the rest of our sakes. Bodhi Rook, do you take Vexei Ly to be your spouse?”

Bodhi took a deep breath and remembered all the nights Vexei had held him after a nightmare, the spike of fear he’d felt when she’d hit the ground on Dantooine, and every moment she drove him crazy with her habit of charging half cocked into things. 

Then he repeated the same words back to her, the result of many careful months of studying her root language. “ _Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde_. Now and for the rest of my life, Vexei Ly, I’ll stand at your side. You’re my light.”

“You two are crazy,” Han remarked. Bodhi was not Mandalorian, and Han wasn’t entirely certain how a Mandalorian would react to the whole ceremony. But from what little he’d seen of Vexei, her upbringing was fairly deeply ingrained.

That and the only ones aware of these vows were the four in the room.

“Well, if that’s that,” Lando said in an amused tone. “I now pronounce you married. You can kiss if you really want to.”

Bodhi wrapped an arm around Vexei and ducked his head to kiss her, her body pressed firmly against his own. After they broke apart he arched a brow at her. “So what’ll it be: Vexei Ly-Rook, Vexei Rook?”

“I’m alright with Vexei Rook,” she laughed. “ _Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum_.”

Bodhi laughed, feeling perhaps the happiest he’d ever felt. “ _Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum_ , Vexei Rook.”

“Come on, you two, no wedding is complete without a toast,” Lando scolded them as he moved to a nearby cabinet and broke out four glasses and a bottle of amber colored liquid.

When all four had a glass, he lifted his. “To the Rooks.”

“To the Rebellion,” Bodhi replied. “And to everything it brought us.” Vexei just smiled.

“I’ll drink to that,” Han replied.


	7. NIghtmares and Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Author's Warning: This chapter deals with PTSD and its effects. Also, I firmly believe that mental health care would exist in the Star Wars universe.
> 
> Bodhi and Vexei deal with some of the demons that still haunt Vexei, and make a big decision that will change their family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/Lucas Arts

Jyn and Vexei were in the living room, Vexei holding her left arm out on the coffee table while Jyn carefully manipulated the wires of her cybernetic forearm. Jaq hovered near by, fascinated by the process.

Bodhi balance four month old Lev Andor on one hip as he watched from the doorway, keeping half an eye on Biva as she played in the screened in porch. 

If you’d told Bodhi over nine years ago, before he’d defected, that he would be standing in his best friend’s living room holding her infant son while watching her repair his wife’s forearm, he’d have told you that you were crazy. The thought of friends, kids, marriage, none of that had seemed possible when he’d defected from the Empire with the message from Galen Erso.

Now Bodhi wouldn’t trade a moment of any of it. 

Well, almost any moment. Last night he’d felt a true spike of fear for the first time since Vexei had gone down in the fight on Dantooine.

It had been a little after one in the morning and the house had been asleep. He remembered going from one moment of peaceful sleep with his wife curled against his side, to wide awake, frantic to find the lamp in the darkness as Vexei thrashed on the floor, screaming, clawing at her cybernetic hand and finally in her episode managing to actually rip some of the circuitry out.

At least, Bodhi reflected, they knew what had triggered it.

When Lev cried during the day, or when Biva had sobbed during the day, when Vexei was awake, in the past, there was no issue.

When she was lost in sleep, though, was another matter entirely. Lev’s cries for a middle of the night feeding had fed into her dreams, and she’d relived the night that her daughter had died, the sickening sensation of hearing the infant screaming over a holocall, only to be cut off abruptly, the wet sound of blaster fire sliding through flesh in the background.

Cassian had responded to the commotion in Bodhi and Vexei’s room as Jyn attended Lev. It had taken a full five minutes for Bodhi to break her out of the dream and get her to realize where she was again.

The naked terror and humiliation in his wife’s eyes had broken Bodhi’s heart. Vexei was a survivor, a hunter, a warrior, but there were some demons from her past that in sleep she never seemed to escape.

Cassian had spoken quietly with Vexei that morning and they’d vanished for a few hours, Jyn advising Bodhi that Cassian was talking Vexei to see someone who helped Cassian with his own nightmares.

At least Vexei hadn’t looked so defeated when they returned that afternoon. She and Bodhi had spoken briefly about the incident, and the trigger. The Counselor had declared Vexei safe to be around the children, even Lev, while she was awake, but suggested she sleep somewhere else that night, where the piercing cries of a child wouldn’t cut through her subconscious mind.

Tonight, he and Vexei would stay at Baze and Chirrut’s, but for now, they’d spend time with the Andors.

“That should do it,” Jyn said quietly as she gave a wire one final twist. “Let’s see you wiggle your fingers.”

Slowly, Vexei flexed the robotic hand and tested its grasp. She nodded to Jyn and Jyn shut the panel, sealing it back up. 

“Try not to fry the circuits again if you can manage,” Jyn said with a lightness neither she nor Vexei felt. She glanced towards the doorway where Bodhi held her son. She lowered her voice. “I’m still glad you’re here, Vexei. You’ll work through this..the kids still love you.”

Vexei gave her friend a half smile. “The kids didn’t see me last night, thankfully.” She glanced momentarily towards Jaq, who still eyed her hand with a fascinated glaze. “Only had that one time when we stayed while Biva was young…never during his nightmares…something about infants, the counselor said.” She sighed. “Sorry.”

“Not something you can exactly help,” Jyn replied seriously. 

“Jaq, come play with your sister?” Bodhi recommended. He had a feeling that Jyn and Vexei wanted to talk, and his wife shot him a grateful glance.

Once Bodhi had herded Jaq to the screened in porch and had all three children under his watchful gaze, Jyn and Vexei slipped quietly back into the office and shut the door.

Jyn heated water for the two of them and they sat with tea, staring across the distance at each other.

Vexei took a deep breath. “Do you still trust me around your children?”

Jyn looked perplexed. “I do. One post traumatic stress episode in the middle of the night, particularly when we can narrow it down to when you are asleep, and away from the kids to begin with, isn’t going to change that, Vexei.” Her brows creased. “How much does Bodhi know about it?”

“Everything. I told him, about my first family, before he and I got married, before he and I really got serious,” Vexei promised, sensing Jyn’s concern for both of them. “We talked once, about kids. Adopt would be an option, like you did, but we’ve figured with as much as we move about the galaxy on ship, for now it really isn’t in the cards. Maybe someday…but definitely not an infant.”

“There’s a lot of older kids who need homes,” Jyn acknowledged, thinking of her oldest son. “You’re good with the kids, Vex, you and Bodhi both.”

Vexei smiled weakly. “For now I think we’ll stick to being the uncle and aunt who spoil them. Though neither of us have written off the possibility entirely.”

They talked awhile longer, and Jyn could see the tension slowly leak out of Vexei’s shoulders again as she began to trust herself again, at least for now.

Jyn thought about all the times Bodhi had told her about how Vexei had held him through the nightmares and soothed his anxieties away. They were a pair, that was certain, but a pair that worked very well together.   
Jyn smiled faintly behind her tea cup. For all the struggles they still faced, at least the crew of Rogue One could say they were happy now.

~~  
Nar Shaddaa had its positives and negatives, though more negatives if you asked Bodhi Rook, given that the place was run by Hutts. Vexei seemed less inclined to curse the city-moon, but she’d spent more time on Nar Shaddaa before she’d joined the Republic, and sometimes even after, using old contacts and making new ones.

She found her mind wandering back to her conversation with Jyn from months ago, and other discussions she and Bodhi had, as she reached the out of the way alley in one of the many trash strew sectors of the city moon and paused in front of a non-descript door, knocking out a code lightly on the durasteel. She’d had additional holo-call sessions with a counselor since her episode at the Andors. They’d established certain parameters for what they thought would trigger an episode for Vexei, as well as medication that could help when she felt an attack coming on.

A few moments later the door slid open and Vexei ducked into a dimly lit room. Beyond the large, main room where she saw a few small children of various races playing with cheap toys, she knew a hall lead back to a series of shared bedrooms and a kitchen.

A tall human woman, hair gone steel gray, regarded Vexei with a cocked eyebrow. “Vexei Rook. It has been awhile.”

“It has, Yanien,” Vexei agreed. “We’ve been running cargo a lot on the outer rim lately.”

“Ahh.” Yanien merely nodded and gestured for Vexei to follow her. The two moved to the kitchen where Yanien poured them both caf as she watched two older children working on a sink full of dishes. 

Vexei took in the sight, and watched Yanien from the corner of her eye. She knew Yanien’s orphanage was chronically short on funds, but the older woman and the others who worked here did whatever they could for the kids they took in. But there would always be more orphans, it was Nar Shaddaa after all. 

They drink the caf in silence, and at the end, Vexei pulled a cred stick out of her thigh pocket and passed it to Yanien. “That should help, a little I hope.”

Yanien gave the Zabrak a tired smile. “Anything you and Bodhi can give helps, Vexei. I-“

“Yanien, Presst is asking for you,” a quiet voice broke in.

Vexei turned her head to see a Twi’lek girl, no older than nine or ten, standing at the doorway.

“Ahh, one of our sick ones,” Yanien said. “Thank you, Shona. If you’ll excuse me Vexei?”

“Of course,” Vexei nodded, shifting out of Yanien’s way. She watched the blue Twi’lek glance curiously back at her for a moment before Shona followed Yanien out of the kitchen.

Vexei saw herself out, knowing the way from the dozen or so times she’d visited. Orphans, and a lack of funds and places to care for them, were a chronic problem in city-planets and city-moons. Governments would always be more interested in lavish displays of diplomatic wealth, or weapons, to ever really deal with chronic problems like starving and homeless children.

She took a skycab to another sector to meet with a supplier to secure their next cargo and then another few hours of picking up needed odds and ends before heading back to the spaceport. The Rooks preferred sleeping on board the _Oblivion_ when on Nar Shaddaa.

As she approached the spaceport, two tall humans and a Rodian harassing some smaller figure she couldn’t see caught her attention.

“Wrong place again, little girl,” one of the humans, a scarred male in dirty coveralls, laughed, looming over the figure.

If there was one thing Vexei couldn’t stand, it was those who picked on others more helpless than themselves. She was loosening her blasters in their holsters and stalking over before she even realized what she was doing. Her fury grew exponentially as she realized the three were crowded around a child. When she caught sight of what the child was when one of the humans went to kick the girl, she swore. 

Blaster fire hit the plastcret less than a millimeter away from the kicking man’s leg. All three whirled around, cruel eyes glittering as they regarded the short, stocky Zabrak in beskar in front of them.

The Rodian took a look at her armor and immediately backed off. He slunk away, holding his hands up. For sake of expediency Vexei dismissed him, her eyes training back on the cruel smirks on the human men’s faces.

“Wanna play, little lady?” the one in coveralls leered. “Bet you got a body under that armor. Maybe we should find out.”

“Kriffing sheb,” Vexei snarled. She saw the fear mingled with hope in Shona’s eyes and made a split second decision that Bodhi would probably rail at her for later.

Vexei stalked towards the men, her hazel eyes burning with absolute fury. “Shona! You two get your kriffing hands off my daughter before there’s nothing left for the scavengers of your bodies.”

The second man finally got a good look at her scars, her armor, her hand, and her weapons, and began realizing they may have bitten off more than they could chew. 

“Er…your daughter? Didn’t realize that-“ he stumbled over his words.

“That she had a family?” Vexei spat, no more than a meter away now. “So orphans are fair game, are they? I ought to shoot you and dump your body in the sewers for that alone. Bet the port authorities will over look it from a well paying customer.”

He started backing away now too, only to be stopped when Bodhi Rook himself came striding out of the port, took one look at the sight of his wife threatening to humans, and a young girl on the ground, and pulled out his blaster.

“You ain’t nothing,” Coveralls snorted, and Vexei could smell the drink on him from here. “I’ll use her, use you, then dump both yer bodies.”

He didn’t get even a step before a blaster bolt tore through his neck. He gaped, and a second one followed, through his skull, then he sunk to the ground like an anchor.

The second man looked completely terrified now as he looked between Bodhi, holding a blaster at his back, and Vexei. “I…please don’t.”

“Get,” Bodhi hissed in a low voice. “We ever hear of you hurting a kid again, they will never find your body.”

Then he was gone, and Bodhi was turning to deal with the arriving port officers as Vexei swooped down to Shona’s side, kneeling on the ground and reaching a hand out to the Twi’lek.

Shona gripped Vexei’s hand like a lifeline and threw herself into the Zabrak’s arms. Vexei spent the next several minutes soothing the girl as Bodhi dealt with the authorities. Vexei was vaguely aware of credits exchanging hands and someone dragging Coverall’s body off as Shona finally calmed down.

Shona’s head was still buried against Vexei’s chest as Bodhi approached. His expression was torn somewhere between fondness and resignation. They had talked about adopting an older child, had decided it was a definite possibility.

As usual, Vexei had gone barreling into something without really thinking about the consequences to save someone. He loved her for it, though it had just made their lives a bit more complicated.

“You’re safe now, Shona,” Bodhi added his voice to Vexei’s, kneeling down to the girl’s level to meet her lavender gaze. “Vexei and I won’t let someone hurt you like that again.”

Shona wasn’t foolish, and she gazed at him with disbelief, but he could see the hope lingering in her eyes too. “You two’ll drop me off at Yanien’s again,” she whispered. “Maybe leave more credits like you have in the past, then you’ll be gone.” She sniffed. “Please don’t make me promises you can’t keep.”

Vexei and Bodhi exchanged a glance. Shona’s life was full of broken promises.

“This isn’t one we’ll break,” Bodhi said firmly. He lifted a brow at Vexei.

“We’ll go back to Yanien’s to deal with paperwork and get your things…then if you want, you’ll come with us,” Vexei told the girl, placing her hands on both of the Twi’lek’s shoulders.

They saw some of that fear and uncertainty begin to fade from Shona’s eyes.

“For real?” Shona asked, still not quite willing to believe.

“For real,” the Rooks replied together.


	8. Settling In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rook family adjusts to their new reality and plan a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/LucasFilms

Bodhi Rook wasn’t entirely prepared for when his daughter cried the first time he bought her two model ships. After the whirlwind generated by his wife’s actions on Nar Shaddaa, it had taken a surprisingly short amount of time to get the official paperwork in, but the, it was a smuggler’s moon with too many orphans to begin with, and the authorities had seemed happy to get another off their hands.

A bit over a week later, they’d docked on Corellia, deciding a more populated and ‘civilized’ planet would be the best place to get the necessities Shona Rook was going to need.

Having a child who would actually be living on the ship rather than just hitching a ride would certainly be an experience. 

Vexei and Shona had spent an entire morning shopping for a wardrobe and necessities for the girl while Bodhi handled the unloading and pickup of their current cargo, and arrange for their next run. Vexei suggested he take Shona somewhere to get the girl her own holopad and perhaps a few toys, since those were currently in short supply on the Oblivion.

One thing he and Vexei agreed upon immediately was that they wanted Shona to have an actual childhood. It might have made more sense to take her to Yavin 4 where she’d be stationary, but neither of them thought their new daughter would react to that, so home schooling on a freighter it was.

It wasn’t the most ideal situation, but they would make it work.

Bodhi reflected again how his wife had a tendency to charge headlong into things as he stood outside the model store with his daughter’s head buried in his chest as she wept.

It made him angry at a universe and government systems that were more interested in profit or war than taking care of children.

It was dusk by the time he and Shona returned to the ship, bags of models, one holopad specifically for school work, one for entertainment (because yes they were going to spoil her after she’d spent so many years as an orphan, kriff it), and one giant bright green Nexu stuffed animal almost as big as the girl herself.

Vexei shot him an amused look at the stuffed animal as she took bags from Shona and helped the girl get them settled into her new quarters. They were converting a smaller storage room on the ship into Shona’s personal bedroom, since Vexei deemed the girl should have a private room rather than sleeping in the crew bunks, and Bodhi wasn’t about to argue with his wife on that matter.

The small family sat together on the benches bolted to the floor outside of the galley and shared some grain and protein dish Vexei had learned from the Damerons on their last visit to Yavin 4. Though Shona had only been in their lives a short while, Bodhi found the sensation familiar and comforting.

That night, after they were certain Shona has sleeping soundly in her room (the first two nights she’d woken up shaking, trying to tell herself all of this was real), they lay in their own bed, Vexei’s fingers entwined with Bodhi’s as they stared up at the ceiling.

“She’s got a long road ahead of her, we all do,” Vexei said in the quiet dark. “But I think we can manage.”

“We will manage,” Bodhi replied firmly. “She’s stuck with us now.” He smiled faintly as he rolled over onto his elbow, regarding his wife. “Let’s stick to one child though? As hectic as our lives are, more than one might be too much for us to handle.” He traced his fingers through her hair. “But we will continue to give what we can to the orphanage. It isn’t big, but every little thing..”

“Is better than nothing,” Vexei replied. “We’ll give Shona and ourselves a few weeks to settle into a routine before we take her to meet the rest of the family.”

Bodhi nodded thoughtfully, thinking that right now, Shona was just trying to adjust to having two adults to love and care for her, the rest of the Rogue One crew and family might be a bit much just yet.

“Thank you, Vexei,” he said softly, leaning down to kiss her. “We’re a family, thanks to you.”

“Couldn’t do it without you,” Vexei replied, then pulled him down to her.

~~

Jyn was, Vexei thought, doing a credible impression of a landed fish.

“I’m sorry, you did what?” Jyn asked a second time as she stared at Vexei and Bodhi over the holocall. It had been a few weeks since Shona had joined the Rooks, and this was the first chance they’d really had to inform the rest of their family of the latest addition.

“We adopted,” Bodhi repeated, casting a glance at his wife. “She’s ten, almost eleven, a little small for her age, blue Twi’lek. Her name is Shona Rook.”

Jyn lifted her brows at them. “How’s that work into your schedule? You two don’t put down to port more than a few weeks at a time, if that.”

Vexei shrugged. “We’re working through it, Shona is adjusting, as are we. Prior to a year ago she’d been in at least three different orphanages until a friend of ours took her in, as well as on the streets for a time.” The Zabrak paused. “We usually split up duties of overseeing loading and unloading, or arranging for new cargo, while the other parent stays with her. We’re also being a bit more selective about our cargo and where we put down now, but we’ve managed to save enough that we can afford to.”

“Will you bring her to Yavin?”

Bodhi glanced down the hall towards Shona’s room. “When she’s ready. She’s still adjusting to everything and we don’t want to overwhelm her. If you all are available in a few days though, we’d like to make a holocall while everyone is awake and we can introduce her.”

Jyn considered a long moment and nodded. “We’ll work something out in the next few days. I’m sure Jaq and Biva will be excited to meet their cousin.”

Bodhi felt a warmth spread through him at the wording. In ten years he’d gone from Imperial Defector to Rogue One pilot, X-Wing pilot, brother, uncle, husband, and now father.  
And he wouldn’t trade a moment of it.

He wrapped his arm around Vexei as the call ended and smiled down at her. As she glanced up, her hazel eyes reflected the same warmth and quiet joy as his brown.

Wherever this wild path took them, they were in it together, and they would do anything to protect their daughter.


	9. Estrangement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bodhi deals with an unpleasant call
> 
> Author's Note: This chapter deals with family estrangement. A reoccurring theme in this series is team as family/found family. This is not a very happy chapter. For Vexei specifically, as a Mandlorian family means everything, and the estrangement with Bodhi's family deeply angers her.

The _Oblivion_ was silent as Vexei and Shona Rook walked up the cargo ramp, each holding a few parcels from half a day of shopping for some necessities and odds and ends for their ship-home. Vexei exchanged a glance with her daughter as they moved up the stairs and into the main living area of the ship and Bodhi was no where to be seen.

“Dad?” Shona called, wondering where her father could have gone to. If he intended to leave the ship he’d have messaged Vexei.

They heard the sold thunk of his boots on the durasteel floor as Bodhi emerged from the cockpit, a weary expression on his face, and, Shona’s eyes widened a bit. Even Shona could tell there was something bothering him from his expression.

“Why don’t you go take your things to your room and get plates out, _ad'ika_?” Vexei suggested as she glanced at Shona. 

The Twi’lek took another look at her father and nodded slowly. Shona knew if anyone would get what was wrong out of her father, it would be her mother. They were not a family who hid things from each other.

As Shona vanished into her bedroom, Vexei pushed Bodhi back into the cockpit and took a seat in the co-pilot’s chair. She reached out and took his hands in hers as he dropped into the pilot’s chair.

“My sister contacted me today,” Bodhi said after several moments of silence.

Vexei knew from his expression he did not mean Jyn. If anything were wrong with Jyn or anyone else in their Rogue One family, Bodhi would have told her immediately.

“What did she want?” Vexei all but growled. She didn’t have a particularly high opinion of Bodhi’s birth family. She knew that his sister had refused to speak to him after he’d become an Imperial Pilot. Once he’d joined the Rebellion it had been too dangerous to reach out. When Bodhi had finally tracked down his kin after the war, they hadn’t wanted anything to do with him, still bitter with him for originally joining the Empire.

“Evidently my father is dying,” Bodhi replied, his grip on Vexei’s hand betraying his distress. 

“So seven years after she last contacted you, now your sister bothers to reach out?” Vexei resisted the urge to snarl. She schooled her features. Bodhi already knew her opinion on his blood-kin’s actions and right now he needed her support. She sighed. “What do you want to do?”

“You know what they say about people on their death bed,” Bodhi replied with a morbid humor. “I…I want to talk to him at least, and this will probably be my last chance.”

Vexei closed her eyes, breathed out, and opened them again. This was about his pain, not her frustration or anger with his family. “Alright then. Set a course. Do you want Shona and I to come with you planetside?”

Bodhi slowly glanced towards the rest of the ship. “I don’t quite know if I can do this alone,” he admitted.  
“Then we’re coming,” Vexei replied firmly. “But we are warning our daughter. And so help me if anyone tries to hurt her-“

“I’ll shoot them myself, blood or not,” Bodhi replied grimly. He took Shona’s safety and happiness more seriously than just about anything.

“Where are they?” Vexei asked as they stood. They could both hear Shona loitering in the lounge, waiting for them.

“Coruscant,” Bodhi replied.

Vexei grunted in response as she followed Bodhi out of the cockpit. There were worst places, she supposed.

Bodhi explained the situation to Shona over dinner. The twelve year old looked somewhat apprehensive.

“We’re taking you to Yavin first,” Vexei told her daughter. “I know you’re getting older but it is a potentially..”

“Explosive situation?” Shona supplied. The twelve year old didn’t look happy at the prospect of meeting people who didn’t like her father as it was. “I’ll stay with Uncle Baze and Chirrut?”

“Or Cassian and Jyn,” Bodhi replied. 

Shona looked between her parents then nodded slowly. “As long as you come back as soon as you’re done.”

Vexei reached out and took Shona’s hand, seeing some of the old fear in the girl’s eyes. “We will,” she promised.

~~  
The Rooks arrived at the residence of Bodhi’s birth family together. Vexei insisted on wearing her armor, and Bodhi decided not to argue with it. 

He could see the disapproval written on Isiala Rook’s expression the moment she opened the door. She eyed the armored Zabrak, helmet tucked under one arm. “Dragging degenerates around with you again, Bodhi?” Isiala asked in what Vexei identified as a snooty tone.

Bodhi’s expression darkened immediately. “You will not insult my wife, Isiala,” he said gravely. 

Isiala’s expression betrayed her surprise, and her judgement. She looked down her nose at Vexei. “Wife? She isn’t even human.”

“At least I don’t insult guests,” Vexei replied in a surprisingly dry tone. “But we aren’t here to deal with you.”

“Vexei’s right. You said Father asked for me,” Bodhi interrupted Isiala before she got more than a breath out. “Let us in, Isiala.”

Isiala gazed at him coldly but stepped aside to let them in. Vexei eyed the woman as if sizing her up for a body bag.

An older woman with similar features to Isiala was coming out of a room at the end of the hall and froze when she saw Bodhi. She gazed almost helplessly at Bodhi for a long moment, then stood aside to let him into the bedroom. Her gaze turned more curious than cold when she saw Vexei following Bodhi. 

Vexei paused at the doorway. “I’ll be in in a few,” she promised Bodhi.

Vexei stepped into the hall with Bodhi’s mother and looked gravely at the woman. “Kashaie Rook?” she inquired quietly. The Zabrak noted that Bodhi’s sister hadn’t bothered to follow them down the hall.

Kashaie nodded slowly, looking as if she wasn’t quite sure what to think of the armored soldier in front of her.

“I’m Vexei Rook,” Vexei introduced herself in a low voice, casting one glance at Bodhi as he appeared to be speaking quietly now to his father. “We have a daughter, Shona.” Her expression turned impassive. “There a reason you all decided it was okay to talk to Bodhi again after over a decade, since before he became a pilot?”

“I-“ Kashaie cast a glance towards Bodhi then hissed softly. “He went and joined the Empire? How could we approve? They-“ she drew herself up. “The Empire was a threat to us all, and yet he joined, because he wanted to fly.”

“Oh I know better than most what the Empire was capable of,” Vexei replied, almost smirking. “I met your son when I was rescued from an Imperial prison for enemy combatants. Still doesn’t explain why you refused to speak to him for so long, not to me. Bodhi flew with the Rebels for five years.”

“It seemed imprudent to attempt a relationship after so long,” Kashaie said stiffly. “But my husband insisted we contact Bodhi when he was diagnosed.”

“So Bodhi’s father was the only one willing to give him a chance?” Vexei asked, her voice turning cold as Hoth. “Your son is a kriffing war hero. He flew an X-Wing against the second Death Star. He flew with the Rebellion for years. He saved my life when my arm was blown off years ago by former Imperial sympathizers.” Her hazel eyed narrowed. “The Empire as a dangerous regime, but none of you were directly in danger from them, were you? I know you didn’t support the Rebellion…I did my research when he told me your names.”

“It would have been too dangerous to sympathize with the Rebellion,” Kashaie replied. “We did what we had to survive.”

“So did Bodhi,” Vexei spat. “Even now your daughter looks down on him…do you?”

“I-“ Kashaie paused and replied in a small voice. “I do not know.”

“You are lucky Bodhi cares at all about you,” Vexei hissed. “Else I’d be willing to do more than just kill you for insulting him and treating him so poorly.” 

With that, Vexei swept into the bedroom. Bodhi was gazing sadly at the man in the bed; it looked like he’d drifted off again.

“Bodhi?” Vexei asked gently.

“He said he was sorry,” Bodhi replied quietly. “That he should have asked me back a long time ago, but…”

Vexei put her arms around her husband.

The two stood there in silence for several moments, then Bodhi sighed, lifting his eyes. Vexei followed his gaze, and realized that the old man’s chest wasn’t rising anymore.

“Let’s go,” Bodhi said finally. He took Vexei’s hand in his own.

“Are you finished?” Isiala demanded when they reached the end of the hallway.

Bodhi glared at her. “We are.” He shot a glance at his mother. “If you ever wish to contact me, you have my frequency. Isiala, don’t even bother. You I am finished with.”

And Bodhi lead his wife away.

“We’re going to Yavin 4,” Bodhi told her when they reached the ship. “I’d rather spend time with my real family.”

That night Vexei held him tightly against the anger and tears that came.


	10. Hunter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bodhi must deal with the fact that his daughter may end up in dangerous situations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/LucasArts

He should, Bodhi supposed, be glad that his daughter didn't want to become a Bounty Hunter the way her mother had been at this age. The fact that his daughter could and did handle a blaster better than some soldiers he'd known in the Rebellion was hard enough to accept some days, though he had admitted the necessity of it when Vexei began teaching Shona years ago. Vexei had been raised in a culture of warriors, and it bled into how she raised their daughter.

Shona was a deadly shot with both blaster pistol and rifle, and though not nearly as skilled as her mother in using a vibrosword, she at least knew what she was doing.

None of this meant he was particularly pleased when his wife and daughter cornered a set of bounty hunters that had been sent after the Rooks. When it was clear they would not listen to reason or surrender, Shona Rook had made a choice and taken the shot, a shot to injure rather than to kill, but it was still disturbing to see your daughter, even at 18, using a blaster rifle on another person.

It was far different from the hunts her mother had taken her on in the wilds of Yavin 4 and other planets.

He regarded his wife with a cool gaze when she entered their quarters on the ship that night. Shona was off in her own bunk. She and Vexei had spent most of the evening before and after dinner unassembling, cleaning, and reassembling weapons. It wasn't the first or last time they would do so, but Bodhi found himself regarding it in a new light after the afternoon's events.

Vexei tilted her chin up as she met his cool brown gaze. She shut the door to their quarters behind her and watched him calmly. "What's your problem, Bodhi?" she asked. Vexei was never one to beat around the bush.

"Our daughter could have killed someone today," he replied, and if she'd been anyone else Vexei might have shivered at that tone. "Or she might have been killed. What in Force were you thinking, Vexei?"

Vexei's gaze turned speculative. "I killed my first man at 16, Bodhi, my first mark. For a Mando, she's old to be starting to hunt now."

"She's not Mandalorian though," Bodhi bit out.

Ahh, so that's it, Vexei though. "Maybe she isn't," Vexei said in an even tone. "But she was raised by one. Our daughter is 18, Bodhi Rook. If she wanted to, she could leave this ship tomorrow and go join the New Republic military, and we couldn't do anything to stop her. It isn't as if she hasn't killed before."

"Game animals, not humans or otherwise," Bodhi retorted.

"Come off it, Bodhi," Vexei snorted. "How many people did you know, in the Rebellion, who joined up at 18, or younger? Death is a part of life. For a Mando, it's an everyday thing."  
She knew Bodhi had been raised very differently from her. He'd never said a word against Shona hunting game with her, typically either to help out local farmers to supplement their food, or dealing with animals that were attacking the local populace. The fact that their daughter had shot a human being was what was bothering him.

"Kriff it, Vex," he cursed. "This is the last thing I ever wanted our daughter to have to deal with! We fought the war so she wouldn't have to."

"Bodhi, love," Vexei reached out, and he let her take his hand. "We did fight the Civil War so she wouldn't have to go to war as well. But it didn't change the galaxy entirely. There are still dangerous people out there. Shona shot to injure today, not to kill, and let the authorities deal with it. She shot to injure because she knew she could. But if her life or ours were truly in danger, she would take the kill shot."

"That's something I don't want her to ever have to do," Bodhi sighed.

"Then what do you propose, Bodhi?" Vexei asked seriously. "That she go to Yavin 4 and stay there? She's not going to agree to. We knew when we adopted her that she would be in dangerous situations sometimes, because of the nature of our work. She's an adult now, and she's already told us she intends to keep flying with us. At this point, I don't think we can really stop her. At least she can defend herself if needbe." She squeezed his hand. "She isn't actively going out and seeking violence, Bodhi. She isn't bounty hunting. But she is equipt to deal with danger if it finds her."

He dropped onto the bed, rubbing at his face as he did. "This is not the world I envisioned for her," he said softly. "Back during the war."

Vexei shrugged. "Honestly, her childhood's been a lot safer than mine was, at least since we adopted her. I worry about her too, but I show it in a different way. My reaction is to train her harder. Next planet, I'm taking her to the range."

Bodhi finally managed a smile. "That would be your reaction," he said. He drew Vexei down onto the bed beside him, and she leaned her head against his chest and let him wrap his arms around her. "At least she's still at home, as much as a ship can ever be home. Jyn and Cassian have to dea with Jaq leaving for the Academy soon."

"Our daughter is still where we can keep an eye on her," Vexei agreed. "She'll go off on her own, eventually, but for now I will be glad she stays close to home."

Bodhi ran his fingers lightly along her jaw, and Vexei turned her lips up towards his as he kissed her. "Thank you, Vexei," he said quietly. "This life is a far cry from the one I imagined I would have after the war..well, not the ship, but having a wife, a daughter, a family."

Vexei chuckled against hsi lips. "Well then I have to thank you too," she said. "Never thought that day in Bespin that I was meeting the man I'd spend the rest of my life with."

"Think Shona'll leave us alone for the night?" Bodhi asked.

Vexei snorted at the question, and pulled him into the bed with her.


	11. Gray hairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bodhi deals with the fact that he's getting older.
> 
> Author's note: This occurs shortly before "A Visit Home" in the year 24 ABY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/Lucas Arts

Bodhi regarded the shard of mirror in the _Oblivion's_ refresher room. He ran his fingers lightly over his beard, noting that he'd managed to get a rather salt and pepper look to his beard these days, he swore he could count the strands of gray that had appeared just since last month. Bodhi had just turned 49 a few months ago, and soon enough he'd be staring down 50. Strands of gray threaded in with his black hair, added by his age, and years of dealing with his spitfire wife and daughter. His olive skin looked weathered, showing that there were times he spent as much time on the ground dealing with the 'adventures' Vexei and Shona convinced him to go on as in the pilot's chair.

His daughter was 24 this year, though he had a hard time accepting some days that his daughter had grown so fast. He could still remember the pre-teen that hid behind him or Vexei the first time they visited Yavin 4 after adopting her. Shona had given him enough gray hairs in the 14 years since he and Vexei had adopted their Twi'lek daughter.

There was little he regretted in his life since the war had ended. Vexei may have increased his gray, but she'd also brought a vibrancy to his life that had been missing before he'd met her in Cloud City. Adding Shona to their family had only made him happier. Those two women had Bodhi completely wrapped around their beskar gauntleted fingers.

As he examined his reflection, he heard the door of the sonic refresher slide open. It wasn't a big room, big enough for the refresher, sink, and necessities, but more often than not Vexei insisted they could both fit. She wasn't wrong, per say, but it was still a rather small room.

"You really think you need to shave?" he heard her ask as his fingers lingered over the handle of his razor and he chuckled softly.

Vexei had told him early on in their marriage that he was free to shave if he wanted, it was his face after all, but she was partial to his facial hair. He'd always maintained some sort of beard since, even if Jyn had remarked it made him look older.

"No," Bodhi told his wife, turning in time for her to slide her arm around his waist after sliding on her clothing. During their nights together, Vexei particularly liked undressing him, and herself, slowly, but out of the refresher she could dress faster than some recruits he'd known in the Rebellion. He gave her a pouting look for a minute as he regarded her tshirt.

Vexei laughed. "Come on, love, it's morning. Do you really want Shona banging on the door and demanding to know when she can use the refresher while we're trying to make love?"

"Maybe next time she's off the ship then," Bodhi suggested in compromise, letting his eyes wander the line of his wife's body. He knew intimately what she looked like beneath, every scar, every old injury, just as she knew his body.

"Mm, we'll see," she replied. She ran her fingers through his hair. "What's got into you? You never stare at the mirror so long."

"Feeling old," Bodhi admitted. Vexei would pester him until he told her anyway. 

"Ahh," Vexei nodded, understanding. Before she could respond they heard the telltale sound of Shona moving outside the refresher room, and Vexei smiled faintly, hitting the pad to open the door and tugging him back towards their room.

Once alone, without the fear of running into grumpy morning twenty some odd year old, Vexei pushed him back against the headboard, sliding her body along his. "You're not really that old, Bodhi," she told him lightly. "49, almost 50, not bad. I'm only a year behind." The metallic fingers of her left hand, the third cybernetic arm she'd had since she'd originally lost the arm, felt cool against his skin as she fingered old scars. "You've lived a good life, and you will continue to do so."

Bodhi hummed softly at her touch, closing his eyes and savored her presence before speaking.

"Almost 50...once upon a time I didn't think I'd ever make it to this age," he admitted. "On Jedha, before Cassian and Jyn came, I thought I'd die. Then on Scariff, then a hundred other times during the war."

Vexei nodded. "Yes, there are many times you might have died, that you didn't." She looked thoughtful. "I always thought it would be better to go out in a fight or a hunt, than to consider dying of old age in my sleep. Dying of old age isn't dishonorable, but it didn't seem right, for the longest time." She tilted her head. "Now though, I want many more years ahead of us, to see if our daughter will ever marry, if we might ever have grand children or great nieces and nephews." She smiled. "Now the idea dying quietly of old age does not scare me as it once did."

His arms tightened around her for a moment. "I would rather you not die in battle," Bodhi told her amiably. "I would prefer many more years spent in your company. But...if it came down to it, if something did happen, at least I knew you, and knew our daughter. My life has been more full in the past seventeen years than in the 32 before that."

"Mine too," Vexei agreed. "I wouldn't trade a moment of any of these years, the good or the bad."

Bodhi nodded his agreement before turning his head a bit, and she tilted hers up to kiss him. They were in hyperspace right now, and they'd arrive at their next port within a few hours. 

Vexei chuckled. "Shona won't bother us," she suggested. "And we sound proofed the walls years ago."

"You always were good at finding ways to pass our time," Bodhi agreed. "Let's, then."


	12. Letting Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bodhi and Vexei deal with their daughter finally leaving home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/LucasArts

ABY 24, Nar Shaddaa

Somehow it always came back to this Hutt ridden planet, Bodhi thought as he arrived back at the hanger the _Oblivion_ was currently docked in. As a freight hauler, he'd made more than his fair share of trips to Nar Shaddaa, mostly business, but occasionally personal, particularly since his daughter had been born here.

He sighed and rubbed his graying temples, his thoughts coming back to Shona again. A month or so before, she'd informed her parents that she was floating the idea of purchasing her own ship and going into the freight hauling business herself. They could, as a family, take on additional customers with another ship to handle hauling, and it wasn't as if she wasn't old enough.

Bodhi just hated to admit how old his daughter was, but at 24, she was more than old enough to chose to leave home, even if 'home' was just a freighter. 

Shona had never complained about their lifestyle as freight haulers, growing up. In an odd way, the fact that her home was her parents ship made her feel more secure, because she knew they wouldn't leave her behind. It had never been an ideal childhood, and she hadn't really had a normal childhood, nor had she played often with other children. She related well to her cousins, the Andor-Erso children, and they had friends with children in a couple of ports she liked to hang out with when they docked, but Shona had never shown or voiced any resentment about not having a stable childhood home.

Then again, he and Vexei also hadn't used the most conventional of parenting methods. No matter how long she'd been away from her clan, Vexei had never been exiled from them, and she'd raised their daughter the way a Mandalorian would, where their daughter had grown up knowing blasters and fighting as well or better than her toys.

A part of him didn't like the thought of his daughter off on her own, but that was more the worried parent in him than anything else.

"Heavy thoughts?" Vexei's voice brought him back to the present, and he glanced up to see his wife coming down the ramp of their ship. 

"About Shona," he admitted, crossing the distance and pulling an unresistant Vexei into his arms. He'd gotten lucky the day he met her in Cloud City.

"Mm, her wanting her own ship?" Vexei guessed. She smiled faintly when he nodded and leaned up to kiss him before tucking some of his long hair behind one ear. "She's 24, Bodhi, more than old enough to go off on her own. I was 18. There's been younger, in my clan."

"Doesn't mean I won't worry about her," he replied.

Vexei chuckled. "True, but she'll be alright, love. We've taught her all we can. Now it's time for her to spread her wings."

"Think it will be sooner, or later?" he asked.

"Probably sooner," Vexei admitted. "I'll miss our little girl, but she's itching to get out on her own. Just a matter of time now."

He sighed. "Well, then let's see what we can get together for her. If she's going to leave home, I'd rather she have a going away gift."

Vexei smiled. "We can do that."

~~  
Shona Rook glanced slowly around the ship's hold, whistling softly to herself. "Kriff, doesn't need as much work as I thought it did. Think I got lucky."

Naeim snorted at her friend as she stepped out of the crew quarters. "Ya will want to give the ship a thorough cleaning, but yeah, you did good. Your Uncle taught you well."

"Uncles," Shona replied lightly. "Between Uncle Han and Uncle Lando, how could I not be good at sabbacc?"

"True," Naeim said. "So what are you going to tell your parents?"

Shona sighed. "They know I'm searching for a ship, they probably just don't expect me to have won one in a game of chance."  
She glanced around. "And Dad is going to want to get a good look at the ship before I start taking on any jobs."

"Good to have family that looks after you, though," Naeim told her, and Shona caught a flash of envy on the other woman's face. Naeim's family hadn't lived far from the last orphanage Shona had lived in before the Rooks adopted her. But years had been rough, and Naeim had lost one parent to Spice and another to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

"Ya know, Naeim, bet my parents wouldn't mind calling you family," Shona said after a moment.

Naeim gave her friend an odd look at shrugged. "Maybe. Right now, I've got to head to work, and you've got a ship to set to rights."

Shona caught the human woman in an embrace before she could slip off. "You take care of yourself, Naeim."

"You took Rook," Naeim replied.

Then Shona was alone, considering her knew ship, and debating how she was going to explain all this to her parents.

~~

They took the news, Shona thought, better than she'd expected. Vexei Rook, Shona noticed, tended to roll with most things. She loved her daughter dearly, but while Vexei had been raised in a culture where family was very important, her culture also put a value on independence. 

Bodhi had circled the ship twice before agreeing to go inside, and Shona could see the rather clinical look on his face as he inspected the _Breakwater_.

"She's an older model," he said at last, his expression unreadable as Shona looked on anxiously.

Vexei rolled her eyes and elbowed her husband in the ribs.

He coughed lightly and sighed, then managed a slight smile. "It's a decent ship, Shona dear, it just needs some minor upgrades before you fly out on it. You did well."

When he held his arms out to her, Shona felt for a moment like she was eleven again. She knew no matter how old she got, her father would be there for as long as he could, holding his arms out to her.

"Thanks Dad," she said softly, sniffing a little.

Vexei encircled both of them in her arms and they stood there quietly as a family, reflecting on the end of an era.

"You'll do well, little one," Vexei told her daughter, even if Shona was taller than her mother now. "You'll fly high."

"So she will," Bodhi agreed softly.


	13. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bodhi and Vexei prepare for a different kind of future.
> 
> Only one more chapter in this particular part of Bodhi and Vexei's lives. Thank you to everyone who has continued to read the fic and been along on the journey with me!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars belongs to Disney/LucasArts

28 ABY

The day Senator Leia Organa announced her resignation from the New Republic Senate was a day that would be forever burned into Bodhi Rook's mind.

They'd been docked on Corellia when the news broke, blaring across every public venue that it possibly could. It twisted his stomach, and made him doubt the New Republic and everything they'd fought for decades ago.

Then again, Bodhi had been doubting the New Republic for the past few years, doubting their sincerity in looking into the mass disappearances of children, or their condolences to the families of dead soliders who'd been killed during "routine missions." He'd seen it in the eyes of his nephew, Jak Andor. He'd seen it in the eyes of refugees whose homes had been destroyed by a no longer nameless terror.

The First Order.

Years of rumors of white helmets and threats were true. But the New Republic continued to deny that threat and the danger is presented to the Galaxy. 

The New Republic's attitude towards what Bodhi was certain was built on the remnants of the Empire made it seem as if they were okay with making the deaths of all those in the Rebellion years ago deaths in vain.

He would never settle for those lives to have been lost in vain.

Vexei had apparently already anticipated his mood when he returned to the _Oblivion_. The punching bag was hanging in the cargo bay and his wife was already stripped down to a tank top and pants. He'd learned long ago that Vexei believed in channeling anger into more productive physical training, and he admitted it helped clear his head as often as not. Bodhi shut the cargo bay door and stripped down and changed into the workout clothing his wife had laid out on a bench for him without much thought.

The physical motion, the old routine, was easy to follow, and after a few rounds of well placed kicks and punches to the bag while Vexei worked out, he found his anger drained, and instead his mind turning to the next plan of action.

"Leia will come up with something," he told Vexei as the Zabrak handed him a bottle of water. "I intend to be a part of it."

Vexei gave him that feral grin he'd first fallen in love with twenty years ago. "Of course we'll be a part of it. You think I'm dealing with this ronto dung lying down?" She tilted her head. "So what do we want to do?"

Bodhi looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'll send a message, something innocuous enough about looking for work. It will give us an excuse other than just a visit, which some people will be watching for closely, to talk to her. We can figure out what she has in mind, and how we can help."

Vexei tilted her head up, looking around the cargobay. "May add some more seats here. It may be time to retrofit Shona's old quarters into bunks again, let us carry more passangers." She lifted her brows at them.

"What are you thinking?" Bodhi asked. Clearly Vexei had something specific in mind.

"We carry cargo and sometimes passengers," he wife replied. "It gives us an excuse to be strange places. We just prepare to carry a bit more cargo, a few more people...the kinds of things a small force might need, if you get my drift."

Bodhi's brows creased a moment and he nodded. She was right. Leia didn't take this sort of thing lying down either. She'd build a force to resist the First Order, and Bodhi and Vexei would be there to help.

"It'll probably take some time for people to get organized," he mused. "It will give us time to reconfigure things. Maybe get in touch with some old contacts. Banding together with other cargo carriers might mean a smaller share of some cuts, but it also means allies, and help if you need it."

"Precisely." Vexei smiled, closing the short distance between them to lean up and brush her lips against his. "Just like old times then?"

Bodhi snorted. "During old times, I didn't have you, my Spitfire. I had a family to fight for, but you give me even more than just that. We've got a daughter and daughter-in-law whose future I want to secure, maybe grandkids someday."

"That's true," Vexei acknowledged. "Can do everything we did back then, but there's still a lot we can do." She sighed and leaned into him. "I know what a future with peace might look like, it gives me hope."

"Well Cassian and Jyn always said rebellions are built on hope," Bodhi replied, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"So they are," Vexei agreed. Her nostrils flared. "Come on, into the fresher with both of us, we stink of sweat."

Bodhi laughed and let his wife pull him out of the cargo hold, feeling a bit better already.

 

Neither of the Rooks were surprised, when a few months later, they received a specific shipping request. Supplies would be needed, but no one wanted to attract too much attention. The New Republic was still in denial, and some people were quite willing to throw their weight around if they could.

When Vexei read the list of cargo they were picking up, she gave him that same feral grin from when they'd first made their decision.

"Ready for this?" Bodhi asked as he typed coordinates into the nav-computer. Vexei settled into the co-pilot seat beside him and nodded. The ship slipped into hyperspeed, on their way to a new home.

As they traveled through hyperspeed, Bodhi took stock of the ship. He'd lived the past two or more decades here, and would continue to do so for the next several years, he suspected. He'd never regretted a moment of it, nor did he regret his decision now.

Days later, when the ship touched down on the new base, Bodhi was unsurprised to see Leia Organa there to greet him and Vexei. The embraced as old friends, a familiar comradery already tingling in the air about them. 

"You ready for this?" Leia Organa asked the Rooks as she lead them to the newly built command center.

"Course we are, General," Vexei replied with a cocky salute. "We knew it was coming, and you can't keep us out of the game."

Bodhi snorted. "Yes, General, we're ready," he replied more simply.

"Then welcome to the Resistance, Lt. Commander Rook, Captain Rook," Leia Organa replied with a fierce smile on her lips.


	14. D'Qar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vexei and Bodhi adjust to life in the Resistance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to all my readers who stuck with me through this, in particular NewLeeland who was commenting and reading on every chapter! there will be occasional oneshots with the Rogue One family in future chapters of Breaking Away.
> 
> Star Wars belongs to LucasArts/Disney
> 
> Find me on tumblr: nytemere.tumblr.com

37 ABY

Bodhi checked the _Oblivion's_ scanners as they dropped out of hyperspace. A few other ships came up, two X-Wings on patrol, the freighter _Blood Red Skies_ (there was a story behind that name, but he didn't know what), and an A-Wing probably with the same squadron as the X-Wings. He hoped the _Breakwater_ was on the ground on D'Qar, but you could never be quite sure. The Resistance kept Shona and Naeim Rook busy with transporting operatives and bringing in small shipments of supplies.

He glanced briefly over his shoulder towards the hold where Vexei was checking on the most recent shipment of supplies. It was amazing sometimes how many simple things like boots an army went through, and how you took good boots for granted when you had them.

"Everything in order?" he asked his wife as she returned to the cockpit and settled in the co-pilot's seat.

"Everything's still there," she said dryly. "Nothing shifted in transit."

"Quartermaster'll be glad for that," Bodhi remarked as he radioed the control tower. "D'Qar, this is _Oblivion_ requesting permission to land."

There was a soft hiss and then a reply came over the ship's comms. " _Oblivion_ , you have permission to land. North Tarmac please."

"Good to know we've still friends on base," Vexei said in her normal odd humor and Bodhi eyed her a moment. The First Order had stepped up their efforts to find the First Order lately, and the Rooks had taken to making a couple of random jumps after picking up supplies before they made the actually jump to D'Qar just to throw off any possible trailers.

"You always did have an odd sense of humor," Bodhi told her as they broke atmo. 

Vexei grinned at him. "You love me though."

"Always will," Bodhi agreed.

Even after being married to Vexei for over two decades, she made his daily life exciting. 

Bodhi would always thank the Force for the day he met her in Cloud City.

"Cred for your thoughts?" she asked as the ship began to ease towards the ground to land.

"Just thinking I'm lucky," Bodhi replied, his eyes on the ground crew. "You've been making my life more interesting since the day we met."

"Twenty some odd years, teen years with our daughter, successful shipping business, now a new war...I wouldn't trade any of it, Bodhi Rook," Vexei said, her expression softening.

Bodhi reached out and took her hand after the ship had settled on the ground, turning her hand around and kissing her palm lightly.

Vexei's eyes flared for a moment as she watched him. "Better be a promise for later."

Bodhi chuckled. "After we get the ship unloaded and see our nieces and nephews, yes, love."

"Good." Vexei leaned across the distance and kissed him fiercely and quick before she chuckled and headed back towards the cargo bay to start unloading.

Bodhi shook his head, for a moment wishing they could just head to their quarters on base, but work before play.

"Dinner time," Vexei remarked as they finished unloading a few hours later. "Cassian and Jyn should be there. Think Jaq and Biva are both out on assignment, but Euxor, Dobeen, and Lev should be there. Quartermaster said Shona and Naeim are expected back tomorrow."

Bodhi nodded in satisfaction, looking forward to seeing his daughter and daughter-in-law again. The coldness of his blood kin towards him when he'd joined the Rebellion made him appreciate his Rogue One family even more.

Family was important to Bodhi, it always would be. Through war, through peace, Rogue One stuck together.

He and Vexei made their way into the mess and collected dinner trays before finding the Andor extended family at one of the tables with an assorted group of base personnel.

"Glad you have you back," Cassian greeted them as they took a seat. "It's been busy over the past few weeks."

"Oh?" Vexei inquired as Bodhi had begun biting into a legume on his plate. 

"More defecting Stormtroopers," came Lev's tired reply to the question where he sat beside Euxor. The youngest Andor rubbed at his forehead. "I don't doubt their sincerity, but it's a bit of a headache with some of the issues the First Order inflicted on them. I-"

Lev's words broke off as a he saw a familiar woman approach their table. Bodhi recognized her from one of the first squads of Stormtroopers that had defected months ago. Lev lifted his fingers and began signing to her, and Bodhi and Vexei looked on curiously. 

_~Ghost?~_ Lev signed.

_~This is your family?~_ Ghost signed back, replying with a question.

Bodhi lifted a brow when he saw Lev shifted so that Ghost could take a seat between he and Euxor. Cassian noticed Bodhi's expression and merely shrugged.

_~Hello Ghost~_ Cassian and Jyn both signed to the woman, and Bodhi controlled his expression carefully, but he was curious at this development.

Vexei exchanged a glance with him, and she merely smiled. before she signed to ghost. _~Hello Ghost. Welcome to the family~_

Ghost eyed Vexei questioningly and Vexei signed back. _~We are a family of friends. Family is more than blood~_

Ghost seemed to weigh Vexei's words, then slowly, smiled as Bodhi noticed Ghost leaned a little in towards Lev and he seemed to lean back towards her.

_~Thank you~_ Ghost signed.

Bodhi smiled. He knew, whatever happened, his Rogue One family would always be there for him, and he would be there for them.


End file.
